How to see an elephant in a dark room

There is a shared mutual understanding that globally, the infrastructure management challenge is huge. Over the last few years, we have seen exponential growth in Data, Modelling and Asset and technology bases worldwide. Population growth, technology growth and the use of infrastructure investment to fund economic recovery are major contributors to this growth. 

This growth, coupled with historical underinvestment and imbalance in asset and project lifecycles, creates current and future financial and performance vulnerability, which has a roll-on effect on us, and the next generation's lives and well-being. 

Countries and organisations continue to spend more time discussing the challenge than working together and collaborating to find a solution. 

There are many conversations held and projects planned about collaborations, standardisation, data-sharing agreement, and modern technology to enhance investment decisions and provide better service to the public. However, organisations are fixed in a problem-solving mode without the momentum to move forward. The slow or delayed decision-making process compounds the challenge and creates a lack of trust in society's capabilities to move forward (and of governments to act?). 

This paper explores the skills and mindsets needed to rise to the challenge, turn on the light and harness the elephant's capabilities. Stakeholder engagement and leadership are critical in understanding context and background and the guiding principles in decision-making. Examples are given to illustrate the key learnings.